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Re: 2012-13 NBA Random Thoughts Thread IX: Ode to Joy

Anyone else think that it's lousy for away fans in a home arena putting off a home player on the free throw line?

Not really. If your home fans are going to let visiting fans take over, then they deserve to lose homecourt advantage.

"Nobody wants to play against Tyler Hansbrough NO BODY!" ~ Frank Vogel

"And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen. "
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Re: 2012-13 NBA Random Thoughts Thread IX: Ode to Joy

The Nets scored 5 points in losing to the Spurs. A 5 point quarter....yikes

Dumpster fire. I guess D-Will might just run off Carleismo in less than five games.

"Nobody wants to play against Tyler Hansbrough NO BODY!" ~ Frank Vogel

"And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen. "
Want your own "Just Say No to Kamen" from @mkroeger pic? http://twitpic.com/a3hmca

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Re: 2012-13 NBA Random Thoughts Thread IX: Ode to Joy

It's a shame that Nikola Mirotic declared for Spain. He's probably not going to play for Spain much, since they have to choose between him and Ibaka under FIBA rules.

If he declared for Montenegro, they'd have Mirotic/Vucevic/Pekovic frontcourt. That would be insane. Even more insane considering the country has 600k people. They'll still be very good, but that team would've been one of Eurobasket favorites for a decade.

Re: 2012-13 NBA Random Thoughts Thread IX: Ode to Joy

DALLAS – Patience in Big D is running as thin as Mark Cuban‘s wallet back when he could barely afford to holler at the refs from the nosebleed section.

After another blowout loss Sunday night, a 111-86 pasting by the San Antonio Spurs, desperate Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle, one week after ripping his club’s effort in a 38-point trouncing at San Antonio, spoke of implementing radical steps, specifically suspending under-performing players, as a means to jolt his reeling team.

“I’ve got to be inventive and find ways. I don’t have a better answer than that,” Carlisle said. “In the last week, I’ve literally had to scream in the face of two guys in practices and shootarounds to get the point across. And I will do that and I will continue to do that.

“If I have to start suspending guys for not doing things they’re supposed to be doing on the court, I’ll do it and you know, Mark and I will get into it about that, but somehow things have got to change, and it just can’t be about it’s a tough schedule. It just can’t.”

Actual suspensions might not fly, but the notion itself lends to a level of desperation that proves how quickly the season is slipping away. Carlisle can certainly choose to sit underachievers on the bench, not that he has many options in which to turn.

“Whatever coach decides I’m behind him,” Mavs forward Shawn Marion said. “Let him decide on what he wants to do. Whatever he decides I’m with him and that’s what it boils down to.”

The Mavs have lost nine of 10 and six in a row. The margin of defeat in the last six is 19.1 points. The Spurs beat them twice by 38 and 25. Denver beat them by 21. Miami and Memphis each won by double digits. The one game the Mavs competed, they couldn’t hold a fourth-quarter lead and lost to Oklahoma City by six in overtime.

Spurs guard Manu Ginobili had this critique of Dallas’ effort Sunday night in front of home fans that sat through another loss rather than watch the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins in a do-or-die NFL game: “They were not very inspired.”

At 12-19, Dallas needs an immediate about-face or risk the franchise’s record 12 consecutive trips to the postseason officially being moved to the endangered list by mid-January.

“January is make or break for this team,” one Mavs player said.

Said Carlisle: “It’s not what this organization has been about since Mark bought the team and this is a stretch that is unprecedented, really. It’s bad and we have to fix it, and it starts with me. So I’m taking the blame for it.”

Dallas sits in 12th place in the Western Conference, four games out of the eighth and final playoff spot. Their season point-differential continues to balloon in the wrong direction. At minus-4.8, it is better than only Sacramento (minus-5.0) and New Orleans (minus-5.9). Only Houston (103.8) allows more points than Dallas (103.1), but the Rockets are scoring seven more points a game.

Dirk Nowitzki returned four games ago yet the Mavs have lost them all with the 7-footer coming off the bench and struggling to knock down shots. Compounding the problem is O.J. Mayo‘s confounding, ongoing slump.

Dallas begins 2013 at Washington on Wednesday. A loss to the 4-24 Wizards would send Dallas crashing to rock-bottom with a Thursday night tilt looming at Miami.

“We got to get some dog in us. We got to get some fight in us right now,” Marion said. “We got to find a way to get it going because this [expletive] sucks.”

Re: 2012-13 NBA Random Thoughts Thread IX: Ode to Joy

Well, we know this. Ainge values KG and Pierce as much as he values Chris Wilcox and Jason Collins. Which means, he doesn't. He'll trade Pierce and/or KG to a horrible situation in a second. He has no loyalty towards them and doesn't appreciate what both have done for the franchise. That's why Ray Allen left.

KG's got a Kobe Bryant no trade clause, so he's protected from Ainge's wrath. Pierce doesn't, and Ainge doesn't appreciate him. He'd trade him to Washington if he felt it'd make the team better.

I'd suspect that Ainge would look to trade Pierce ( or KG...as you suggest...unlikely ) would be traded to the West.

Re: 2012-13 NBA Random Thoughts Thread IX: Ode to Joy

I can't imagine that Carlisle is on the hot seat though. He won them a title 2 years ago with a bunch of aging role players and Dirk, no way Cuban cans him. This years Dallas team was just thrown together after realizing that they couldn't get in on the D.Howard fiasco. Would be a tragedy if he is fired after missing Dirk for the first 1/4 of the season with a pieced together team after management failed to find a new star player to take the pressure off of Dirk in his career twilight.